Pair testify that Pretti did not hold weapon and was trying to help woman federal agents had shoved to the ground

Two witnesses to the killing of Alex Pretti have said in sworn testimony that the 37-year-old intensive care nurse was not brandishing a weapon when he approached federal agents in Minneapolis on Saturday, contradicting a claim made by Trump administration officials as they sought to cast the shooting of a prone man as an act of self-defense.

Their accounts came in sworn affidavits that were filed in federal court in Minnesota late Saturday, just hours after Pretti’s killing, as part of a lawsuit brought by the ACLU on behalf of Minneapolis protesters against Kristi Noem and other homeland security officials directing the immigration crackdown in the city.

One witness is a woman who filmed the clearest video of the fatal shooting; the other is a physician who lives nearby and said they were initially prevented by federal officers from rendering medical aid to the gunshot victim.

The names of both witnesses were redacted in the publicly available filings.

The ACLU is not fucking around here. But it’s sad that we’ve gotten to the point that emergency filings like this are necessary.

  • Archangel1313@lemmy.ca
    4·
    1 day ago

    Yeah. The 2nd amendment is great…in theory. In practice, it’s still a death sentence for anyone carrying while interacting with the police…and it’s still the perfect “get out of jail free” card for any cop they encounter, since there’s no way for them to know ahead of time whether or not they were “legally” armed.

    As much as people like to pretend that it will protect them from the police…the 2nd amendment will never work to prevent the cops from gunning you down as soon as they find out you have a weapon. Whether the gun was legal or not, they will still use the “I feared for my life” defense, as a way of escaping any consequences.

    • Powderhorn@beehaw.orgOPMEnglish
      6·
      1 day ago

      The irony here is rich. They’re supposedly supposed to be ensuring our right to bear arms for precisely this sort of situation.

      Now, against the military, a 9mm is somewhat useless. But they swore an oath to the Constitution, and so far as I’m aware, the armed forces as a whole commit fealty to that, not a pathetic guy who can somehow bankrupt casinos.